Search results for ""escape""

'Utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic' Angela Knight'Hot, sexy, unique, intriguingly wicked' Christine Feehan _______________The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sinner brings another hot adventure of true love and ultimate sacrificeThe location of the glymera's notorious prison camp was lost after the raids. When a freak accident provides Nyx clues to where her sister may still be doing time, she becomes determined to find the secret subterranean labyrinth. Embarking on a journey under the earth, she learns a terrible truth- and meets a male who changes everything, forever.The Jackal has been in the camp for so long, he cannot recall anything of the freedom he once knew. Trapped by circumstances out of his control, he helps Nyx because he cannot help himself. After she discovers what happened to her sister, getting her back out becomes a deadly mission for them both.United by a passion they can't deny, they work together on an escape plan for Nyx- even though their destiny is to be forever apart. And as the Black Dagger Brotherhood is called upon for help, and Rhage discovers he has a half-brother who's falsely imprisoned, a devious warden plots the deaths of them all... even the Brothers. __________Find out why readers are OBSESSED with JR Ward 'Insanely good! . . . Intensely romantic and straight up flipping steamy, violent and gruesome, heartbreaking and deep. Her addictive writing tells a story like none other' Goodreads reviewer'I can't get enough of these sexy, tough, intriguing vampires' Amazon reviewer'Emotional by epic proportions' Kobo reviewer'The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a twisting, often surprising, but always awesome read' Amazon reviewer'A must read' Goodreads reviewer'The story had me captivated the whole way' Kobo reviewer'Each and every character is compelling' Amazon reviewer

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'Gripping, fast-paced, and completely unexpected, Who's Afraid has more twists than a tornado. I loved this story!' Darynda Jones, New York Times bestselling author of the Charley Davidson series'Truly one of the best in the genre I have ever read.' Oscar-nominee Lexi Alexander (Green Street Hooligans, Punisher: War Zone, Arrow, Supergirl)Tommi Grayson: all bark, all bite . . . and now she's BACK!After the worst family reunion in history, Tommi needed some space. She's spent the last few weeks trying to understand her heritage - the one that comes with a side order of fur - as well as learning about her Maori ancestry and how she can connect to it. But she can only escape for so long. When an unspeakable evil returns, Tommi will need every piece of knowledge and all the skills she has. With the help of allies old and new, frenemies both helpful and super-annoying, she's going to take the fight to the enemy . . . Praise for Maria Lewis 'It's about time we had another kick-arse werewolf heroine - can't wait to find out what happens next!' Keri Arthur'Journalist Maria Lewis grabs the paranormal fiction genre by the scruff of its neck to give it a shake with her debut novel Who's Afraid?' The West Australian'Underworld meets Animal Kingdom.' ALPHA Reader 'Lewis creates an intriguing world that's just begging to be fleshed out in further books.' APN 'If you haven't heard about Maria Lewis's new urban fantasy novel Who's Afraid you must have been living under a rock.' Good Reading Magazine'An intriguing take on a classic monster with vibrant, modern characters.' Sci Fi Bulletin'Pay attention urban fantasy fans - Maria Lewis is a name you'll want to remember.' One More Page 'Definitely worth reading over and over again, as well as buying multiple copies. Great stocking stuffers, those werewolf books.' Maria Lewis's mum

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Charley Davidson has enough to be getting on with. She is, after all, incredibly pregnant and feeling like she could pop at any moment. But, just her luck, twelve deadly beasts from hell have chosen this time to escape, and they've made Charley their target. She takes refuge at the only place they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. Before long, Charley also has a new case to hold her attention: the decades-old murder of a newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows of the convent. Add to that the still unsolved murder of her father, the strange behavior of her husband, and Charley's tendency to attract the, shall we say, undead, and she has her hands full ...but also tied. While the angry hellhounds can't traverse the consecrated soil, they lurk beyond its borders like evil sentries, so Charley has been forbidden from leaving the sacred grounds and is powerless to get the answers she wants. Luckily, she has her loyal team with her, and they're a scrappy bunch. They scour the prophesies, searching for clues on the Twelve, and their presence is comforting - it's almost as though they've all been drawn to her as part of a bigger picture ...But the good feelings don't last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life. 'Hilarious and heartfelt, sexy and surprising...I'm begging for the next one!!' - J.R. Ward 'If you enjoy Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, you will certainly enjoy Charley Davidson.' - Suspense Magazine 'I am furiously envious of Darynda Jones and rue the day she came up with this concept, damn her eyes. First Grave on the Right kidnapped me from the first paragraph.' - Mary Janice Davidson 'Rollicking humor, sizzling sexual tension and a spine-tingling mystery.' - Kresley Cole

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A remarkable account of Kurt Gödel, weaving together creative genius, mental illness, political corruption, and idealism in the face of the turmoil of war and upheaval. At age 24, a brilliant Austrian-born mathematician published a mathematical result that shook the world. Nearly a hundred years after Kurt Gödel's famous 1931 paper "On Formally Undecidable Propositions" appeared, his proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable within that system - continues to pose profound questions for mathematics, philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence. His close friend Albert Einstein, with whom he would walk home every day from Princeton's famous Institute for Advanced Study, called him "the greatest logician since Aristotle." He was also a man who felt profoundly out of place in his time, rejecting the entire current of 20th century philosophical thought in his belief that mathematical truths existed independent of the human mind, and beset by personal demons of anxiety and paranoid delusions that would ultimately lead to his tragic end from self-starvation. Drawing on previously unpublished letters, diaries, and medical records, Journey to the Edge of Reason offers the most complete portrait yet of the life of one of the 20th century's greatest thinkers. Stephen Budiansky's account brings to life the remarkable world of philosophical and mathematical creativity of pre-war Vienna, and documents how it was barbarically extinguished by the Nazis. He charts Gödel's own hair's-breadth escape from Nazi Germany to the scholarly idyll of Princeton; and the complex, gently humorous, sensitive, and tormented inner life of this iconic but previously enigmatic giant of modern science. Weaving together Gödel's public and private lives, this is a tale of creative genius, mental illness, political corruption, and idealism in the face of the turmoil of war and upheaval.

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'Beguiling ... Limpidly written, effortlessly learned' William Boyd, TLS, Books of the YearIn November 1838 Frédéric Chopin, George Sand and her two children sailed to Majorca to escape the Parisian winter. They settled in an abandoned monastery at Valldemossa in the mountains above Palma, where Chopin finished what would eventually be recognised as one of the great and revolutionary works of musical Romanticism - his 24 Preludes. There was scarcely a decent piano on the island (these were still early days in the evolution of the modern instrument), so Chopin worked on a small pianino made by a local craftsman, which remained in their monastic cell for seventy years after he and Sand had left.This brilliant and unclassifiable book traces the history of Chopin's 24 Preludes through the instruments on which they were played, the pianists who interpreted them and the traditions they came to represent. Yet it begins and ends with the Majorcan pianino, which during the Second World War assumed an astonishing cultural potency as it became, for the Nazis, a symbol of the man and music they were determined to appropriate as their own.The unexpected hero of the second part of the book is the great keyboard player and musical thinker Wanda Landowska, who rescued the pianino from Valldemossa in 1913, and who would later become one of the most influential musical figures of the twentieth century. Kildea shows how her story - a compelling account based for the first time on her private papers - resonates with Chopin's, while simultaneously distilling part of the cultural and political history of Europe and the United States in the central decades of the century. Kildea's beautifully interwoven narratives, part cultural history and part detective story, take us on an unexpected journey through musical Romanticism and allow us to reflect freshly on the changing meaning of music over time.

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_____One of The Observer's Best Children's Books of 2018! Fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and The Children of Blood and Bone have been getting lost in The Hazel Wood..."The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. I had every light burning and the covers pulled tight around me as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years". -Jennifer Niven, author of All The Bright Places-----Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate - the Hazel Wood - Alice learns how bad her luck can really get. Her mother is stolen, by a figure who claims to come from the cruel supernatural world from her grandmother's stories. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: STAY AWAY FROM THE HAZEL WOOD.To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began . . . -----"This book will be your next obsession. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave." - Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval "Realism and fantasy blue in this strange and bewitching tale" The ObserverMelissa Albert has created a world as dark, twisted and magical as Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter. Will you escape the Hazel Wood?

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Five masterful dramatic works from one of the world's best-loved playwrights, Anton Chekhov's Plays is translated with notes by Peter Carson, and an introduction by Richard Gilman in Penguin Classics.At a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the everyday lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people. Ivanov depicts a man stifled by inactivity and lost idealism, and The Seagull contrasts a young man's selfish romanticism with the stoicism of a woman cruelly abandoned by her lover. With 'the scenes from country life' of Uncle Vanya, his first fully mature play, Chekhov developed his own unique dramatic world, neither tragedy nor comedy. In Three Sisters the Prozorov sisters endlessly dream of going to Moscow to escape the monotony of provincial life, while his comedy The Cherry Orchard portrays characters futilely clinging to the past as their land is sold from underneath them.Peter Carson's moving translations convey Chekhov's subtle blend of comedy, tragedy and psychological insight. In his introduction, Richard Gilman examines how Chekhov broke with theatrical conventions and discusses each play in detail.Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was born in Taganrog, a port on the sea of Azov. In 1879 he travelled to Moscow, where he entered the medical faculty of the university, graduating in 1884. During his university years, he supported his family by contributing humorous stories and sketches to magazines. He published his first volume of stories, Motley Tales, in 1886, and a year later his second volume In the Twilight, for which he received the Pushkin Prize. Today his plays, including Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, and The Cherry Orchard are recognised as masterpieces the world over. If you enjoyed Plays, you might like Chekhov's The Shooting Party, also available in Penguin Classics.

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They called him the Terror of the East. His past shrouded in mystery, his identity hidden behind a suit of enchanted black armour and a skull-like helm, Corvis Rebaine carved a bloody path through Imphallion, aided by Davro, a savage ogre, and Seilloah, a witch with a taste for human flesh. No shield or weapon could stop his demon-forged axe. And no magic could match the spells of his demon slave, Khanda. Yet just when ultimate victory was in his grasp, Rebaine faltered. His plans of conquest, born from a desire to see Imphallion governed with firmness and honesty, shattered. Amid the chaos of a collapsing army, Rebaine vanished, taking only a single hostage - the young noblewoman Tyannon - to guarantee his escape. Seventeen years later, Rebaine and Tyannon are married, living in obscurity and raising their children, a daughter and a son. Rebaine has put his past behind him, given up his dreams of conquest. Not even news of Audriss - an upstart warlord following Rebaine's old path of conquest - can stir the retired warrior to action. Until his daughter is assaulted by Audriss' goons. Now, to rescue the country he once tried to conquer, Rebain once more dons the armour of the Terror of the East and seeks out his former allies. But Davro has become a peaceful farmer. Seilloah has no wish to leave her haunted forest home. And Khanda . . . well, to describe his feelings for his former master as undying hatred would be an understatement. But even if Rebaine can convince his onetime comrades to join him, he faces a greater challenge: does he dare to reawaken the part of him that glories in cruelty, blood and destruction? With the safety of his family at stake, can he dare not to?

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A missing schoolgirl, a middle-aged recluse, an exploited teenager. Lives thrown into chaos and set on collision course. With the police in hot pursuit. Scarlett is dancing in the school talent show tomorrow. Nana, who Scarlett lives with since Mum died, reckons Scarlett will be on Strictly at this rate. Except Scarlett doesn't make it home from school. She's abducted by a man she never imagined she'd see again. A man on the police's most wanted list. Her dad. Ron has made a living as a house and pet sitter since quitting his career on the front line in the fire service. He's currently looking after a place deep in the Derbyshire Peaks. The solitude suits him. And managing animals is so much simpler than coping with other people. Dylan's a 'cuckoo', dealing drugs on the county line, moving from nest to nest, picking out people who daren't say no. Keeping his head down, one step ahead of the law. So far. But now everything's falling apart.DS Laura O'Neil is running on empty after nights dealing with her teething toddler. But Laura is driving the hunt for Scarlett and knows that every minute counts. Any delay, any mistake might cost Scarlett her life. A devastating prospect.PC Ahmed Ali discovers a seriously injured man in a drug den and chases his suspected attacker across the hills. Ahmed is determined to bring him to justice. But fate has other plans in store.A race against time, played out in the brooding wilderness, the limestone gorges and gritstone edges of the Peak District. Themes of escape and entrapment, of shifting loyalties and new alliances, of violence, fear and love, resilience, kindness and hope.

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"[An] incredibly moving collection of oral histories . . . important enough to be added to the history curriculum" Telegraph"A moving evocation of the 'everyday terror' systematically perpetrated over 41 years of Albanian communism . . . An illuminating if harrowing insight into life in a totalitarian state." Clarissa de Waal, author of ALBANIA: PORTRAIT OF A COUNTRY IN TRANSITION"Albania, enigmatic, mysterious Albania, was always the untold story of the Cold War, the 1989 revolutions and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mud Sweeter Than Honey goes a very long way indeed towards putting that right" New EuropeanAfter breaking ties with Yugoslavia, the USSR and then China, Enver Hoxha believed that Albania could become a self-sufficient bastion of communism. Every day, many of its citizens were thrown into prisons and forced labour camps for daring to think independently, for rebelling against the regime or trying to escape - the consequences of their actions were often tragic and irreversible. Mud Sweeter than Honey gives voice to those who lived in Albania at that time - from poets and teachers to shoe-makers and peasant farmers, and many others whose aspirations were brutally crushed in acts of unimaginable repression - creating a vivid, dynamic and often painful picture of this totalitarian state during the forty years of Hoxha's ruthless dictatorship.Very little emerged from Albania during communist times. With these personal accounts, Rejmer opens a window onto a terrifying period in the country's history. Mud Sweeter than Honey is not only a gripping work of reportage, but also a necessary and unique portrait of a nation.With an Introduction by Tony Barber*Winner of the Polityka Passport Prize**Winner of the Koscielski Award*Translated from the Polish by Zosia Krasodomska-Jones and Antonia Lloyd-Jones

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Escape to Cornwall with this delightful summer read... Ellie Truman's mum has been struggling to keep the family hotel in Cornwall afloat since Ellie's dad passed away. Ellie is determined to help her mum, even if that means moving back to the sleepy Cornish village of Port Medden she fled from broken-hearted a few years ago.Running the hotel isn't easy and Ellie is grateful for the help from charming guest, Reece Mitchell. Ellie feels herself falling for Reece but should she trust him and risk getting her heart broken again? And will their hard work be enough to save the hotel?A gorgeous feel-good read, perfect for fans of CATHY BRAMLEY and PHILLIPA ASHLEY.Readers love Karen King's feel-good fiction: 'A great romance story by a superb author, I loved the main character from the start' 5* Amazon review'Such a lovely summer book that I just couldn't put down! Absolutely loved the character of Ellie and I was desperate to see how everything would work out' 5* Amazon review'The story takes you to wonderful scenes of pebbled beaches, rock pools, narrow streets and all the glory of summer. It's a great holiday read and even you if aren't on holiday it gives you a feel of that freedom and relaxation. You can't help falling in love with the main characters and following their every move with suspense. I loved this book and read it in a couple of days because once I started reading, I couldn't put it down! Highly recommended!' 5* Amazon review'Most enjoyable read. Always interesting. Very believable characters. I can thoroughly recommend it. What could be a better summer read than one set in beautiful Cornwall' 5* Amazon review'This was a truly delightful book to read. Just light-hearted feel good.' 5* Amazon review

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The wedding is off, but adventure awaits...The perfect armchair escape for fans of Jo Thomas, Jenny Colgan and Phillipa Ashley.'Funny, inspirational and so evocative' CATHY BRAMLEY'The ultimate armchair adventure - I absolutely loved it!' HEIDI SWAIN'Will leave you feeling inspired' CRESSIDA MCLAUGHLIN'THE BROKEN HEARTS HONEYMOON is truly gorgeous. A great premise, sympathetic protagonist and a journey full of laughs and drama. A true love story to Japan too - the most wonderful setting - five stars from me. A really brilliant read.' ROSIE BLAKE____________________________When disaster strikes, adventure calls...Charlotte had a plan. The perfect country wedding, followed by a month-long honeymoon in Japan - but when her fiancé starts having second thoughts, she knows there's no choice but to call off the wedding.Charlotte isn't sure she knows how to be single, but she is going to try, starting with taking that trip of a lifetime - alone.Will she find herself in the hills of Mount Fuji, or in the karaoke bars of Tokyo?And will she be ready for romance by the time the cherry blossom flowers?A feel-good story of reclaiming your life, set among the cherry blossom of Japan. The Broken Hearts Honeymoon is Eat, Pray, Love for the Instagram generation.____________________________READERS ARE FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE BROKEN HEARTS HONEYMOON'Has the reader completely there in the thick of the adventure. One of the best books of the year.''Gloriously rich descriptions and an emotional arc that is deeply felt and sweetly told''I loved the messages the book had about knowing yourself and taking the time to find out what you want out of life''Just what I needed as a pick me up - made me feel happy''What an incredible book!''This is a fabulous read'

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'Nobody does cosy, get-away-from-it-all romance like Jenny Colgan' Sunday Express'An evocative, sweet treat' Jojo Moyes___________________________________ In a quaint seaside resort, a charming bakery holds the key to another world... Curl up and escape with Jenny Colgan 'An evocative, sweet treat' Jojo Moyes'This sweet romance will lift your spirits' Sunday Mirror'Gorgeous, glorious, uplifting' Marian Keyes'Irresistible' Jill Mansell'Just lovely' Katie Fforde'Naturally funny, warm-hearted' Lisa Jewell'A gobble-it-all-up-in-one-sitting kind of book' Mike Gayle'A sheer delight from start to finish' Sophie Kinsella___________________________________When she is given the opportunity to move to a remote tidal island off the Cornish Coast, Marisa Rossi decides some peace and quiet might be just what she needs.Since the death of her beloved grandfather back in Italy, she's been struggling to find a way out of her grief. Perhaps this will be the perfect place for her to recuperate.But Mount Polbearne is a far cry from the sleepy little place she was imagining. Between her noisy piano-teaching Russian neighbour and the hustle and bustle of a busy community, Marisa finds solitude is not so easy to come by. Especially when she finds herself somehow involved with a tiny local bakery desperately in need of some new zest to save it . . .___________________________________ Why readers ADORE Jenny Colgan 'Jenny Colgan has a way of writing that makes me melt inside''Her books are so good I want to start over as soon as I have finished''There's something so engaging about her characters and plots''Her books are like a big, warm blanket''Her stories are just so fabulous''She brings her settings and characters so vividly to life''The woman is just magic'

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In 1990, the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, co-created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, opened with a murder mystery when a beautiful homecoming queen, wrapped in plastic, washed up on a cold and rocky beach. Laura Palmer’s character began as a plot device that triggered a small town to face its fractured self. But after three seasons and a film, Laura Palmer is no longer just a plot device. Instead of solely focusing on the murderer, like most traditional storytelling at the time, the audience gets to know the victim, a complex young woman who explores her sexuality and endures incredible abuse. Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks is an examination of Laura Palmer’s legacy on the 30th anniversary of Twin Peaks. Palmer’s character was one of the few frank and horrific representations of sexual abuse victims which did not diminish the strength and complexity of the victim. Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer, discusses the challenges of the role and how it has impacted herself as well as women she has met over the years, many of whom are survivors of sexual abuse. The role demanded Lee give all of her vulnerability as an actor to this role. This role is one she cannot escape, one with which she will forever be identified. It’s a role that still haunts her today. For many women, this character represents them. Here was a woman who was not just a victim, but who was owning her sexuality as well—a woman coming into her own and discovering her sources of power. This book is a reckoning in which women from the show and community speak about grief, mischief, humor, sexuality, strength, weakness, wickedness, and survival.

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In 1932, Isay Rottenberg, a Jewish paper merchant, bought a cigar factory in Germany: Deutsche Zigarren-Werke. When his competitors, supported by Nazi authorities, tried to shut it down, the headstrong entrepreneur refused to give up the fight.Isay Rottenberg was born into a large Jewish family in Russian Poland in 1889 and grew up in Lodz. He left for Berlin at the age of eighteen to escape military service, moving again in 1917 to Amsterdam on the occasion of his marriage. In 1932 he moved to Germany to take over a bankrupt cigar factory. With newfangled American technology, it was the most modern at the time. The energetic and ambitious Rottenberg was certain he could bring it back to life, and with newly hired staff of 670 workers, the cigar factory was soon back in business.Six months later, Hitler came to power and the Nazi government forbade the use of machines in the cigar industry so that traditional hand-rollers could be re-employed. That was when the real struggle began. More than six hundred qualified machine workers and engineers would lose their jobs if the factory had to close down. Supported by the local authorities he managed to keep the factory going, but in 1935 he was imprisoned following accusations of fraud. The factory was expropriated by the Deutsche Bank. When he was released six months later thanks to the efforts of the Dutch consul, he brought a lawsuit of his own. His fight for rehabilitation and restitution of his property would continue until Kristallnacht in 1938.The Cigar Factory of Isay Rottenberg is written by two of Rottenberg's granddaughters, who knew little of their grandfather's past growing up in Amsterdam until a call for claims for stolen or confiscated property started them on a journey of discovery.

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Millennials love it. Amateur investors made millions out of it, and its founders became billionaires. But professional investors steered clear, regarding it as over-valued.In a few short years, the Australian startup Afterpay has put a rocket under consumer finance and birthed a global industry. It pioneered the four-payments model that allows customers to bypass credit cards for online shopping and budgeting, with the cost borne by the retailer. Just five years after it was founded, Afterpay had changed the way a generation went shopping, how brands from big banks to fashion labels win customers, and how institutions value companies. Buy Now, Pay Later recounts the dramatic behind-the-scenes story of the founding and rise of Afterpay. It reveals the network of business and personal relationships that enabled the company to finance its speedy growth and the manoeuvring that enabled it to escape regulation for years, as well as the near-death experiences and rising concern that it is getting young people hooked on debt. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with key figures involved in their rollercoaster ride, this is the Afterpay story told in full for the first time.Jonathan Shapiro and James Eyers report on banking and finance at The Australian Financial Review.'A gripping success story with a colourful Sydney cast, a story of innovation, courage, lucky breaks and above all family.' - Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia 'Shapiro and Eyers tell the entertaining and illuminating story of how Afterpay emerged as a global, online-retailing power in a few short years.' - Gregory Zuckerman, The Wall Street Journal'Well written and well worth reading.' - David Gonski AC, company director 'A fascinating read of the journey behind one of the biggest Australian entrepreneurial successes of our time!' - Jane Lu, CEO and founder, Showpo

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In the months since Pandora English left the small town of Gretchenville to live with her mysterious great aunt in a supernatural Manhattan suburb, her whole world has been turned upside down. Pandora has discovered she is the chosen one, the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter, and during the impending Revolution of the Dead, she alone will have the power to save all life as we know it. The Agitation is unfolding, building towards the Revolution, and Pandora can no longer deny the truth in these incredible prophecies. But what will she do when the moment comes? How can she stand against the army of the dead? Pandora's relationship to her spirit guide, Lieutenant Luke, is intensifying. She's had to grapple with ghosts, vampires and necromancers. Now, with the Blue Moon approaching and a new exhibition opening at The Met, which celebrates an ancient female pharaoh done wrong in antiquity, powerful forces threaten to upend the balance of life and death. Pandora is given the chance to find out what happened to her parents all those years ago, but first she must put her own supernatural gifts to the test. From the best-selling author of The Blood Countess, The Spider Goddess and The Skeleton Key.'[A] charming para-normal story...Pandora is an engaging character - polite, courteous, grieving for her parents who died eight years ago...She is likeable and unassuming - but beginning to understand the importance of her role in the protection of the living world.' - Queensland Reviewers Collective'A fabulously fun supernatural new adult romance oozing female empowerment and open-mindedness...The Cobra Queen is a highly entertaining and emotionally satisfying escape from the real world. Sign me up for the next one!' - Booklover Book Review

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A wild bull on the field, a fly ball caught by a train conductor, a pitcher taking the mound barefoot—Minor League Baseball has been played across the country in cities large and small for more than a century, and there are thousands of entertaining and improbable stories to tell from it.Join professional baseball broadcaster Tim Hagerty for a journey through the zaniest Minor League stories in Tales from the Dugout. Given its long history, it is no surprise that the game has encountered some bizarre things over the years. This humorous and outlandish collection of stories is sourced from newspaper archives and the Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York, and includes a foreword by former MLB All-Star Billy Butler. Whether you're a baseball fanatic or just a fan of sports history, this book captures the spirit of the game.This compendium of minor league shenanigans includes: HOLE IN ONE: In 1942, a Milwaukee Brewers batter hit a low line drive that bounced down the right field line. He rounded the bases while confused Louisville Colonels fielders searched for the ball. They eventually found it inside a gopher hole. MONKEYING AROUND: A chimp's escape turned a Southern Association game into pandemonium on July 17, 1909. "Henry the Chimpanzee," the New Orleans Pelicans' official mascot, busted from his cage and chased players around the field. The chimp then went after fans, who ran from him screaming. The game was delayed a few minutes while Henry was restrained. HEADLESS CRUSHER: A police department in Ohio got a call about a missing head. The Lake Erie Crushers' mascot's head was stolen in 2011, forcing the mascot to miss a few home games. After learning through media reports that police were investigating, the thief returned the head by inconspicuously placing it under the ballpark's tarp.

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In the middle of a harsh desert where water is the town’s most valuable resource, an accused killer runs to escape the man who is trying to kill him.Troy Warfield is on the run. He is entering hostile New Mexico territory, where the heat sucks moisture from the earth and beats down the weak. Accused of killing a deputy U. S. Marshal, Warfield has been running for six hundred miles, evading the relentless pursuit of U. S. Marshal John Trent.Fulton, New Mexico, is the only source of water at the end of a desert. Anyone wanting to reach Mexico would need to ride through Fulton, a town that is run by Lem Bricker and his gang, who charge mightily for its water at two dollars a gallon. When Troy Warfield is waylaid on the way to Fulton, Marshal Trent gets there ahead of him and is captured by Bricker and his thugs. All they want from Trent is information: who he’s pursuing, his description, and how much money he’s carrying. Soon, it begins to look as if the outlaws will assist Marshal Trent to do whatever it takes to capture Warfield.There’s just one little problem: Troy Warfield isn’t carrying any money.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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A classic story of imperiled love on the western frontiers of nineteenth-century America.“He was a young man in years, but he had the hard face and eagle eye of one matured in experience of that wild country. He bestrode a superb bay horse, dusty and travel-worn and a little lame. The rider was no light burden, judging from his height and wide shoulders; moreover, the saddle carried a canteen, a rifle, and a pack. From time to time he looked back over his shoulder at the magnificent long cliff wall, which resembled a row of colossal books with leaves partly open. It was the steady, watchful gaze of a man who had left events behind him.”So begins Jim Wales’s story in Robbers’ Roost. While a battle rages between two outlaw gangs in a remote Utah canyon, Jim struggles to rescue Helen Herrick, who has been captured and held for ransom.Robbers’ Roost tells the story of their personal struggle to escape the clutches of the murderous outlaws while simultaneously safeguarding their passion, one that is not likely to survive the beautiful, yet deadly, terrain and people of the old American West.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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It has long been acknowledged that General Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army Northern Virginia ended the Civil War at the battle of Appomattox in April 1865. But even after that battle, Union leaders were not certain the rest of the Southern armies would lay down their arms. The oft-overlooked siege of Mobile was crucial to securing a complete victory and the final surrender of the last Confederate force east of the Mississippi River. After the fall of New Orleans in 1862, Mobile became the most important Confederate port city on the Gulf Coast. In 1864 Union forces won the battle of Mobile Bay, but failed to capture the city of Mobile. Mobile remained an important logistical center, with access to major rail lines and two major river systems, essential in moving reinforcements, ordnance and other supplies. By late 1864, Mobile was one of the last significant Gulf Coast cities east of the Mississippi still held by the Confederacy. A lynchpin in the ability of the Southerners to continue fighting, Mobile’s capture became one of the keys to ending the war. The Last Siege describes the entire campaign of Mobile in spring of 1865, from Union and Confederate camp life in the weeks prior to the invasion, through cavalry operations, the Federal feint movement at Cedar Point, naval operations in Mobile Bay, the tread-way escape from Spanish Fort, to the evacuation of Mobile. It overturns the popular notion that Mobile was predominantly a pro-Union town that wholeheartedly welcomed the Federals. It also uses a variety of primary sources to highlight the bravery of the men who fought in this important campaign, which culminated in the final surrender at Citronelle on May 4, 1865.

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It’s Not a Diet! But You Will Lose Weight with This Proven Path to Developing Better Eating Habits and Building a Healthy Relationship with Food. Diets come and go, and the weighing scale needle swings as you drop pounds and then gain them back. But what if there was a weight loss solution for forever? Not another fad diet based on deprivation and restriction, but a holistic system for shedding pounds and maintaining your weight? In The Doctors' Permanent Weight Loss Plan, doctor-and-patient team Janice Asher and Jae Rivera show that it’s not just about the food you eat or don’t eat—it’s about a mindset and lifestyle change. Cumulatively losing 170 pounds and maintaining their weight for years, Janice and Jae share scientific evidence, personal experiences, and practical insights on how you can successfully reframe your relationship with food. It’s about stopping the shame associated with body size, recognizing instances of disordered eating, equipping yourself with the knowledge on what behaviors contribute to lasting weight loss, and making use of a few secret tricks and strategies. Get actionable tips on how to: Overcome barriers like stress, shame, and emotional eating Avoid sugars and escape the comfort food circle of hell Eat good food that nourishes your intestinal microbiome and brain Choose vegetables, probiotics and prebiotics, and more Boost your metabolism by eating during the right times of the day Commit to an exercise regime you can enjoy Transform your kitchen from danger zone to a safe space Survive the holidays and develop a support system Stop the cycle of fat-shaming and treat yourself with kindness Complete with twenty-six recipes for cauliflower quinoa puttanesca, “umami bomb” roasted portabella mushrooms, blueberry breakfast smoothie, curried lentil salad, and more, The Doctors' Permanent Weight Loss Plan encourages readers to embrace a paradigm shift and transform their lives for good.

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'If you ever doubted that your feline companion has her own inner life, just watch what happens when she falls asleep, and loses conscious control of her physical being ...a twitching of limbs, a quivering of the jaw, sometimes, perhaps, a snuffling noise or a meow ...Cats may indeed be capable of great mindfulness, but we are thinking beings, too. In my own case, unfortunately, a being who thinks rather too much.' In the latest installment of the Dalai Lama's Cat series, His Holiness's Cat ('HHC') is on a mission: to think less, to experience more, to live in the moment. She soon learns the proper phrase for this, being mindful, or, a concept better known to her as the power of meow. What ensues is a journey to discover her own true nature, to gain a deeper understanding of her mind, and to experience life's greatest joy, the here and now. Throughout, she shares encounters with familiar inhabitants of Dharamsala, as well as a whole new cast of characters: a senior exec from one of Silicon Valley's most famous social media companies (hint: the name rhymes with 'litter'), the Pope's beloved dog (who shares a shockingly similar title: HHD, His Holiness's Dog), and a public health inspector who threatens to have our poor narrator banned from the Himalaya Book Cafe. In this follow-up to The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Art of Purring, readers escape to the enchanting and exotic world of the Dalai Lama's monastery in the Himalayas, and take a peek inside the mind of a delightfully imperfect creature on the path to enlightenment. By accompanying HHC on her journey, you will learn new ways to relate to your own mind: slowing down, finding peace, and abiding in the boundless radiance and benevolence that is your own true nature.

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The only pressure cooker cookbook--for electric and stovetop pressure cookers--you'll ever need!What's not to love about the pressure cooker? Using pressure created by super-heated steam, the pressure cooker can cut cook times by 70 percent, meaning dinner is on the table faster, and with significantly less energy use. Your dinner will be more nutrient-rich because vitamins and other good things won't be lost in evaporating steam. And it will taste delicious and succulent because none of the food's moisture has been allowed to escape. Finally, today's modern pressure cooker has been re-engineered for safety and ease of use, including the development of the electric pressure cooker.Because no moisture evaporates during cooking, conventional stovetop recipes do not work in the pressure cooker. For success, the pressure cooker requires different food to liquid ratios and because of that superheated pressure, cook times are very precise. With this comprehensive guide, the busy cook can use fresh ingredients to create more than 700 tasty recipes developed for and scrupulously tested and retested for the pressure cooker. Chapters on Poultry, Pork, Beef & Veal, Lamb & Game, and Seafood include Zinfandel-braised short ribs that cook in just 30 minutes, herb-stuffed whole turkey breast and braised lamb shanks ready in 25 minutes, and baby back ribs that pressure-cook in just 15 minutes. Individual chapters on grains, beans, rice dishes (including risotto and breakfast rice), potatoes, chili, and tomato sauces (with and without meat), as well as on soups, vegetables, desserts, making your own baby food, and much more. An introductory chapter explains the ins and outs of the pressure cooker, with valuable tips and advice. The authors also include recipes for lots of basics, such as how to cook different types of rice and varieties of dried beans."

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Contrary to those who believe that liberalism has descended into the dustbins of history, renowned political activist and social critic Marcus G. Raskin argues that there is no escape from liberalism. Against the empty-headed and mean-spirited conservative onslaught of recent times, Raskin asserts and ably demonstrates how the liberal purpose is tied to human liberation and inclusivity for all people. For liberalism to succeed in a new century, it must reckon with its past mistakes—especially its reluctance to be bold. It must also embrace the inextricably interwoven character of morality and politics. To this end, Raskin seeks no less than a new intellectual and spiritual covenant in the university, the political economy, and foreign policy. He shows how this is possible through a radical rethinking of America's role in the world including war avoidance and economic restructuring. He probes the tensions and limits as well as the promise of community, family, and technology. His text helps us recognize the potential of a new multiculturalism within American society and the important role that knowledge workers and specialists will play as change agents in a changed world. Liberalism: The Genius of American Ideals traces Raskin's remarkable journey of the last fifty years through social and political action as well as thought. It is a book for people "in motion" who realize the importance of humane ideas in relation to action, aware not only that peace should be given a chance but that our best instincts must also be engaged through the reconstruction of our institutions. In the face of a new, distinctly uncompassionate brand of conservatism that has shuttered the doors to the very real world of struggle, alienation, and pain, Liberalism is intended to hold a candle in the window of this dark time.

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October 1864. The confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle had sunk two federal warships and damaged seven others, taking control of the Roanoke River and threatening the Union blockade. Twenty-one-year-old navy lieutenant William Barker Cushing hatched a daring plan: to attack the fearsome warship with a few dozen men in two small wooden boats. What followed, the close-range torpedoing of the Albemarle and Cushing’s harrowing two-day escape downriver from vengeful Rebel posses, is one of the most dramatic individual exploits in American military history. Theodore Roosevelt said that Cushing “comes next to Farragut on the hero roll of American naval history,” but most have never heard of him today. Tossed out of the Naval Academy for “buffoonery,” Cushing proved himself a prodigy in behind-the-lines warfare. Given command of a small union ship, he performed daring, near-suicidal raids, “cutting out” confederate ships and thwarting blockade runners. With higher commands and larger ships, Cushing’s exploits grow bolder, culminating in the sinking of the Albemarle. A thrilling narrative biography, steeped in the tactics, weaponry, and battle techniques of the Union Navy, Commander Will Cushing brings to life a compelling yet flawed figure. Along with his three brothers, including one who fell at Gettysburg, Cushing served with bravery and heroism. But he was irascible and complicated—a loveable rogue, prideful and impulsive, who nonetheless possessed a genius for combat. In telling Cushing’s story, Malanowski paints a vivid, memorable portrait of the army officials, engineers, and politicians scrambling to win the war. But he also goes deeper into the psychology of the daredevil soldier—and what this heroic and tragic figure, who died before his time, can tell us about the ways we remember the glories of war.

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“An eerie, savage novel.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s BooksAmerican Horror Story meets the dark comedy of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as Cat searches for a way to escape her high school. A tale of family, love, tragedy, and masks—the ones others make for us, and the ones we make for ourselves. Katzenjammer will haunt fans of Chelsea Pitcher’s This Lie Will Kill You and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars.Cat lives in her high school. She never leaves, and for a long time her school has provided her with everything she needs. But now things are changing. The hallways contract and expand along with the school’s breathing, and the showers in the bathroom run a bloody red. Cat’s best friend is slowly turning into cardboard, and instead of a face, Cat has a cat mask made of her own hardened flesh.Cat doesn’t remember why she is trapped in her school or why half of them—Cat included—are slowly transforming. Escaping has always been the one impossibility in her school’s upside-down world. But to save herself from the eventual self-destruction all the students face, Cat must find the way out. And to do that, she’ll have to remember what put her there in the first place.Using chapters alternating between the past and the present, acclaimed author Francesca Zappia weaves a spine-tingling, suspenseful, and haunting story about tragedy and the power of memories. Fans of Marieke Nijkamp’s This Is Where It Ends and Karen McManus’s One of Us Is Lying will lose themselves in the pages of this novel—or maybe in the treacherous hallways of the school. Includes interior illustrations from the author.

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As seen in the New York Times Book Review. Set in the passionate, intense, and crumbling neighborhood known as the Spanish Quarter of Naples, comes a tale of two students searching for love and belonging in the city they so desperately want to call home.Years after leaving Naples with a broken heart, Heddi receives an email from her first love. Although she now lives in New Zealand, just the thought of the Spanish Quarter’s narrow, winding streets sparks the pain of longing. Heddi had found her place in that city built on Roman ruins and set against a sleeping volcano. A place she wants to call home despite being l’americana or the American. For Heddi’s group of university friends, Naples is either a refuge from their familial responsibilities or an entryway to a wider world. But for all of them, Naples was their real university of life: the setting of their unrestrained youth. When Heddi first met Pietro at a party hosted by her bohemian roommates, she was inexplicably drawn to the serious geology student. Despite coming from wildly different backgrounds—Heddi, a nomadic American; Pietro, an Italian farm boy—the two fell into a liberating romance. She was searching for the roots she never had, while he tried to escape his. Yet even after the two were doomed to part ways, their story isn’t finished just yet. Inspired by her own 10-year search for belonging in Naples, author Heddi Goodrich gives readers a passionate tale of a life caught between two worlds and a heartfelt ode to first love—of a place, of a person— where languages and cultures collide while dreams soar and crash in unexpected ways.

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From the author of The Summer We Fell Apart, an evocative and emotionally resonant coming-of-age novel involving three friends that explores what it means to be happy, what it means to grow up, and how difficult it is to do both together. The summer he's fifteen, Sam enjoys, for a few secret months, the unexpected attention of Suzie Epstein. For reasons Sam doesn't entirely understand, he and Suzie keep their budding relationship hidden from their close knit group of friends. But as the summer ends, Sam's world unexpectedly shatters twice: Suzie's parents are moving to a new city to save their marriage, and his own mother has suddenly left the house, leaving Sam's father alone to raise two sons. Watching as her parents' marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college and independence. Though she thinks of Sam, she deeply misses her closest friend Bella, but makes no attempt to reconnect, embarrassed by the destructive wake of her parents as they left the only place Suzie called home. Years later, a chance meeting with Sam's older brother will reunite her with both Sam and Bella-and force her to confront her past and her friends. After losing Suzie, Bella finds her first real love in Sam. But Sam's inability to commit to her or even his own future eventually drives them apart. In contrast, Bella's old friend Suzie-and Sam's older brother, Michael-seem to have worked it all out, leaving Bella to wonder where she went wrong. Spanning over a decade, told in alternating voices, The Grown Ups explores the indelible bonds between friends and family and the challenges that threaten to divide them.

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Blending the hot topics of new technology, market spaces, competitive strategy and customer behaviour, Customer Capitalism stands conventional wisdom on its head by introducing a new business model which shows how any business can generate increasing returns and gain a massive competitive advantage. Taking examples from companies as diverse as Amazon.com and Mondex, Microsoft and Monsanto, the author explains how businesses can escape the traps of a traditional mindset and originate for the customer rather than the product. These entreprises transform classic product/service categories, moving them away from market share into new "market spaces" where they find new ways of doing for customers. Customer Capitalism does what old capitalism could never do - it gives corporations a sustainable edge. Sandra Vandermerwe shows how to relate the ten principles of customer capitalism to your business and achieve the multiple and exponential rewards of increasing returns. Customer Capitalism generates growing customer value streams from ever-deepening and expanding relationships with individuals who lock-on to an organisation. These customers become an "installed customer base" who want the organisation as their dominant or sole choice on an ongoing basis. The new enterprise becomes the standard for these new ways of doing things by gathering market momentum. A growing number of individuals see and use the new way of doing things, making the enterprise ever more prevalent, and its brand increasingly infectious to others. Central to the concept of customer capitalism are six positive feedback loops which ensure customer lock-on and accelerating growth. Once the loops go into motion as one interlinking, reiterative system then the real forces of the new market and economic dynamics of customer capitalism come into play. Customers become the competitive barrier. Advantage leads to more advantage, success to more success, accumulating increasing returns in new market spaces.

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Rosamund Lupton meets Lupin in this accomplished debut from an eclectic, cut-throat new voice in thriller writing.**DON'T MISS MEGAN DAVIS' NEXT THRILLER, BAY OF THIEVES. AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**'A sleek, sinister debut' WOMAN'S OWN'A strong, twisting, literary journey of revelation and redemption. Five stars' JANICE HALLETT'An intelligent, gripping and stylish literary thriller - I couldn't put it down. Megan Davis is a major new talent' SOPHIE HANNAH'A sharply written, clever and classy thrill-ride through the streets of Paris' CHRIS WHITAKER A crime he didn't commit. A truth he must deliver.Wealthy and privileged, Alex has an easy path to success in the Parisian elite his father mingles with. But the two have never seen eye to eye. Desperate to escape the increasingly suffocating atmosphere of their apartment, Alex seeks freedom on the streets of Paris where his new-found friend Sami teaches him how to survive. But everything has a price - and one night of rebellion changes their lives forever.A simple plan to steal money takes a sinister turn when Alex's father is found dead. Despite protesting their innocence, both boys are imprisoned for murder. Seven years later Alex is released from prison with a single purpose: to discover who really killed his father. Yet as he searches for answers and atones for the sins of his past, Alex uncovers a disturbing truth with far-reaching consequences.Playing out against a backdrop of corruption, fake news and civil unrest, The Messenger exposes the gritty reality of a changing city through one son's journey to redemption and the truth.'Megan Davis's electric, suspenseful and stunning evocation of contemporary Paris is unforgettable' ELIZABETH MACNEAL'A well-written, intriguing novel with an excellent sense of place' KAMILA SHAMSIE 'Compelling ... A deft blend of murder mystery, political intrigue and family secrets' DOMINIC NOLAN

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A gripping international thriller, perfect for fans of Homeland. Trust. Betrayal. Conspiracy. Jacob Seger is a trainee diplomat who dreams of changing the world. But on his first posting, in Beirut, he meets a handsome stranger at a party and is swept up in a passionate, obsessive, affair. His relationship with Yassim eclipses everything – until one day Jacob recognises his own face in the newspaper. He is wanted on terrorism charges. Has Yassim set him up? Is he now a pawn in a murderous plot? Jacob is being pulled into a dangerous and complicated game. He needs to learn the rules, and escape Beirut – and he needs to do it fast. At once a moving love story and a gripping adventure, The Friend is an intelligent, urgent thriller that casts light on the dark threats facing the world today. WORLDWIDE REVIEWS FOR JOAKIM ZANDER: 'Fresh, raw and exciting' Sunday Times (UK). 'A thriller of rare ambition' Daily Mail (UK). 'Gripping and urgent' Irish Independent (UK). 'Timely and relevant' Literary Review (UK). 'Both forceful and subtle... Powerfully orchestrated tension set against a strong dose of social commentary' Independent (UK). 'An absorbing thriller in a complex world of spies, politics, terrorism and assassination... Excellent' The Times (UK). 'A multi-layered thriller full of style, drive and immediacy' Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden). 'Wonderfully written... A superb thriller' Metro (Croatia). 'Intrigue, action and adrenaline mixed to perfection' Librería Reconquista (Spain). 'A terrific page-turner rich with complex conflicts and a big, meaty, chillingly credible conspiracy' Chris Pavone (USA). 'A riveting thriller with a great plot. What more can you ask for?' Lokalavisen (Denmark). 'An explosive, thrilling dance fuelled by authenticity' Il Giornale (Italy). 'A multi-layered, action-packed thriller' Dorstener Zeitung (Germany).

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From the Outer Banks to Asheville, discover the best of the Tar Heel State with Moon North Carolina. Inside you'll find:* Flexible itineraries, including scenic drives along the Blue Ridge Parkway, four days in the Great Smoky Mountains, and a five-day coastal getaway* Strategic advice designed for hikers, beach-goers, foodies, wildlife-watchers, and more* The top local experiences: Explore the gardens of the Biltmore Estate, check out the art museum in Raleigh, or kick back with a craft beer at an outdoor concert in Wilmington. Escape to the Outer Banks for a glimpse of wild horses, historic lighthouses, and remote islands. Tap your foot to live bluegrass and dig into famous North Carolina barbecue* Outdoor activities: Hike to waterfalls or challenge yourself to climb the highest peaks in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Kayak around Kitty Hawk, white-water raft in the wild Nantahala River Gorge, go hang gliding, or spend a day fly-fishing* Expert tips from North Carolina local Jason Frye on when to go, how to get around, and where to stay, from rugged campgrounds to historic inns and beachside B&Bs* Full-colour photos and detailed maps throughout* Thorough background on the landscape, climate, wildlife, and local cultureWith Moon North Carolina's expert advice and local insight, you can find your adventure.Focusing on the mountains? Check out Moon Asheville & the Great Smoky Mountains. Can't get enough of the beach? Try Moon North Carolina Coast.About Moon Travel Guides: Moon was founded in 1973 to empower independent, active, and conscious travel. We prioritize local businesses, outdoor recreation, and traveling strategically and sustainably. Moon Travel Guides are written by local, expert authors with great stories to tell-and they can't wait to share their favourite places with you.For more inspiration, follow @moonguides on social media.

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‘Deserves to be an instant classic. I haven’t loved a book this much in a long time . . . What Strange Paradise . . . reads as a parable for our times . . . Such beautiful writing . . . This is an extraordinary book.’ – The New York TimesFrom the widely acclaimed author of American War, Omar El Akkad, a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic and profoundly moving novel that brings the global refugee crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes.More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another over-filled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too-many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives in their homelands. And only one had made the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who has the good fortune to fall into the hands not of the officials, but of Vänna: a teenage girl, native to the island, who lives inside her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers and don’t speak a common language, Vänna determines to do whatever it takes to save him.In alternating chapters, we learn the story of Amir’s life and of how he came to be on the ship; and we follow the duo as they make their way towards a vision of safety. But as the novel unfurls, we begin to understand that this is not merely the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair – and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality, or guide us to a better one.

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In The Enslaved and Their Enslavers, Edward Pearson offers a sweeping history of slavery in South Carolina, from British settlement in 1670 to the dawn of the Civil War. For enslaved peoples, the shape of their daily lives depended primarily on the particular environment in which they lived and worked, and Pearson examines three distinctive settings in the province: the extensive rice and indigo plantations of the coastal plain; the streets, workshops, and wharves of Charleston; and the farms and estates of the upcountry. In doing so, he provides a fine-grained analysis of how enslaved laborers interacted with their enslavers in the workplace and other locations where they encountered one another as plantation agriculture came to dominate the colony. The Enslaved and Their Enslavers sets this portrait of early South Carolina against broader political events, economic developments, and social trends that also shaped the development of slavery in the region. For example, the outbreak of the American Revolution and the subsequent war against the British in the 1770s and early 1780s as well as the French and Haitian revolutions all had a profound impact on the institution’s development, both in terms of what enslaved people drew from these events and how their enslavers responded to them. Throughout South Carolina’s long history, enslaved people never accepted their enslavement passively and regularly demonstrated their fundamental opposition to the institution by engaging in acts of resistance, which ranged from vandalism to arson to escape, and, on rare occasions, organizing collectively against their oppression. Their attempts to subvert the institution in which they were held captive not only resulted in slaveowners tightening formal and informal mechanisms of control but also generated new forms of thinking about race and slavery among whites that eventually mutated into pro-slavery ideology and the myth of southern exceptionalism.

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Reveals the secretive, inaccurate, and often violent ways that the American criminal system really works Curtis Flowers spent twenty-three years on death row for a murder he did not commit. Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a misguided raid on her home. Rachel Hoffman was murdered at age twenty-three while working for Florida police. Such tragedies are consequences of snitching. Although it is nearly invisible to the public, the massive informant market shapes the American legal system in risky and sometimes shocking ways. Police rely on criminal suspects to obtain warrants, to perform surveillance, and to justify arrests. Prosecutors negotiate with defendants for information and cooperation, offering to drop charges or lighten sentences in exchange. In this book, Alexandra Natapoff provides a comprehensive analysis of this powerful and problematic practice. She shows how informant deals generate unreliable evidence, allow serious criminals to escape punishment, endanger the innocent, and exacerbate distrust between police and poor communities of color. First published over ten years ago, Snitching has become known as the “informant bible,” a leading text for advocates, attorneys, journalists, and scholars. This influential book has helped free the innocent, it has fueled reform at the state and federal level, and it is frequently featured in high-profile media coverage of snitching debacles. This updated edition contains a decade worth of new stories, new data, new legislation and legal developments, much of it generated by the book itself and by Natapoff’s own work. In clear, accessible language, the book exposes the social destruction that snitching can cause in heavily-policed Black neighborhoods, and how using criminal informants renders our entire penal process more secretive and less fair. By delving into the secretive world of criminal informants, Snitching reveals deep and often disturbing truths about the way American justice really works.

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'I cannot recommend this beautiful picture book about depression by Debi Gliori highly enough. It's a masterpiece.' - David Walliams, bestselling children's authorSHORTLISTED for the 2018 KATE GREENAWAY MEDALA UK nomination for IBBY's List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2019A groundbreaking picture book on depression with stunning illustrations. With stunning black and white illustration and deceptively simple text, author and illustrator Debi Gliori examines how depression affects one's whole outlook upon life, and shows that there can be an escape - it may not be easy to find, but it is there. Drawn from Debi's own experiences and with a moving testimony at the end of the book explaining how depression has affected her and how she continues to cope, Debi hopes that by sharing her own experience she can help others who suffer from depression, and to find that subtle shift that will show the way out.'I have used dragons to represent depression. This is partly because of their legendary ability to turn a once fertile realm into a blackened, smoking ruin and partly because popular mythology shows them as monstrous opponents with a tendency to pick fights with smaller creatures. I'm not particularly brave or resourceful, and after so many years battling my beasts, I have to admit to a certain weariness, but I will arm-wrestle dragons for eternity if it means that I can help anyone going through a similar struggle.''Debi Gliori is amazing. Her pictures offer people an insight into depression that words often struggle to reach. She makes visible the invisible. And I for one want to thank her for that.' - Matt Haig, bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive

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For anyone who enjoys the outdoor life, or wants to escape from their normal confines of home and office, this book is a perfect inspiration. In the vein of Lars Mytting’s Norwegian Wood or Erling Kagge's Silence, Under the Open Skies: A Practical Guide to Living Close to Nature combines escapism and adventure with a love of nature and the desire for a simpler life. Twenty years ago, Markus Torgeby traded his hectic urban lifestyle for a small hut in the forests of northern Sweden. He ended up living there for four years, in perfect solitude and in harmony with nature. Today, he and his wife Frida and their three children live in a house he built with his own hands, near the site where he once survived on nothing but oatmeal, river water and the forest’s own pantry. Framed with stunning photographs taken by Frida, Under the Open Skies is the story of Markus’s journey from broken youth, to living alone in the forest, to a self-healed family man. Torgeby is proof of the restorative powers of the outdoors and his descriptions of living close to nature combine everyday philosophy and inspirational insights with helpful advice as he shares how to make fire, the best techniques for chopping logs and how best to forage for food. Part practical guide to how to live in the wild, part a meditation on the human need for a connection with the natural world, Under the Open Skies is the beguiling and timely portrait of how the desire for a simpler existence helped one man find contentment and connection with the world around him, and how we can all learn from his experience.

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Completely revised and updated: an essential edited collection of essays on global human smuggling.Migrant smuggling is now more entrenched than ever in many regions around the world, with efforts to combat it both largely unsuccessful and often counterproductive. In Global Human Smuggling, editors Luigi Achilli and David Kyle bring together up-to-date contributions from a wide array of interdisciplinary scholars on the most important issues related to this global phenomenon.Contributors explore human smuggling in several nuanced forms across diverse regions, examining its deep historical, social, economic, and cultural roots as well as its broad political consequences. This volume represents a cutting-edge chronicle of the state of human smuggling today, its many complexities not easily reduced to simple moral narratives, and how researchers uncover the lives it affects, both directly and indirectly. Just as migrants cross borders for a variety of reasons, many of those involved in migrant smuggling activities have an equally diverse set of motivations and organizations, ranging from those helping people escape persecution and violence to transnational criminal syndicates preying on the vulnerabilities of migrants attempting to leave their countries.Building on the pioneering work of its previous two editions, this new volume introduces contributions organized by the themes of control, complexity, and creativity. Spanning issues around the world, the essays in this essential collection cover topics such as global migrant smuggling networks, government responses, multinational initiatives against human trafficking for sexual exploitation, representations of human smuggling in mainstream narratives of migration, and more. With nineteen new contributors, the third edition of Global Human Smuggling represents the progress of human smuggling research on every continent and offers a rare research-based and conceptual framework for the study of this critical global issue.

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Expert guidance on the art and science of driving secure behaviors Transformational Security Awareness empowers security leaders with the information and resources they need to assemble and deliver effective world-class security awareness programs that drive secure behaviors and culture change. When all other processes, controls, and technologies fail, humans are your last line of defense. But, how can you prepare them? Frustrated with ineffective training paradigms, most security leaders know that there must be a better way. A way that engages users, shapes behaviors, and fosters an organizational culture that encourages and reinforces security-related values. The good news is that there is hope. That’s what Transformational Security Awareness is all about. Author Perry Carpenter weaves together insights and best practices from experts in communication, persuasion, psychology, behavioral economics, organizational culture management, employee engagement, and storytelling to create a multidisciplinary masterpiece that transcends traditional security education and sets you on the path to make a lasting impact in your organization. Find out what you need to know about marketing, communication, behavior science, and culture management Overcome the knowledge-intention-behavior gap Optimize your program to work with the realities of human nature Use simulations, games, surveys, and leverage new trends like escape rooms to teach security awareness Put effective training together into a well-crafted campaign with ambassadors Understand the keys to sustained success and ongoing culture change Measure your success and establish continuous improvements Do you care more about what your employees know or what they do? It's time to transform the way we think about security awareness. If your organization is stuck in a security awareness rut, using the same ineffective strategies, materials, and information that might check a compliance box but still leaves your organization wide open to phishing, social engineering, and security-related employee mistakes and oversights, then you NEED this book.

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First volume of a gripping collection of the writings of one of the twentieth century's finest composers, the Anglo-Polish Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1914-91), consisting of a new edition of his 1984 autobiography Composing Myself, his complete programme notes on his own compositions, his essays and articles and his interviews. Sir Andrzej Panufnik used to say that he communicated in music, not words. But his literary legacy is substantial, as this anthology demonstrates. Its first volume consists of a fully annotated new edition of Composing Myself, the autobiography he wrote in 1985, long since a collector's item. It provides a graphic account of an often dramatic life. Panufnik's early success in pre-World War II Poland was soon eclipsed by the horrors of the Nazi occupation. Composing Myself documents in striking detail the desperate circumstances in which Panufnik repeatedly found himself - and the personal courage with which he responded. Post-War Poland then progressed from the overt terrors of Nazism to the deadening hand of Communism, and Panufnik charts the methodical attempts of Party orthodoxy to stifle independent thought. In spite of the success he enjoyed as a conductor, Panufnik was unable to compose under such restrictions, feeling he was being suffocated. Though a patriot to his bones, he boldly decided that escape to the west was the only option, and his account of his defection - in 1954, at the height of the Cold War - reads like a le Carré thriller. Safe in England, he was able to rebuild his career, overcoming official neglect of his music to become one of Britain's best-respected composers - and to be greeted as a national hero when he finally managed to return to his beloved Poland, free at last.

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Augustine’s Confessions is a text that seduces. But how often do its readers respond in kind? Here three scholars who share a longstanding fascination with sexuality and Christian discourse attempt to do just that. Where prior interpreters have been inclined either to defend or to criticize Augustine’s views, Virginia Burrus, Mark Jordan, and Karmen MacKendrick set out both to seduce and to be seduced by his text. Often ambivalent but always passionately engaged, their readings of the Confessions center on four sets of intertwined themes—secrecy and confession, asceticism and eroticism, constraint and freedom, and time and eternity. Rather than expose Augustine’s sexual history, they explore how the Confessions conjoins the erotic with the hidden, the imaginary, and the fictional. Rather than bemoan the repressiveness of his text, they uncover the complex relationship between seductive flesh and persuasive words that pervades all of its books. Rather than struggle to escape the control of the author, they embrace the painful pleasure of willed submission that lies at the erotic heart not only of the Confessions but also of Augustine’s broader understanding of sin and salvation. Rather than mourn the fateful otherworldliness of his theological vision, they plumb the bottomless depths of beauty that Augustine discovers within creation, thereby extending desire precisely by refusing satisfaction. In unfolding their readings, the authors draw upon other works in Augustine’s corpus while building on prior Augustinian scholarship in their own overlapping fields of history, theology, and philosophy. They also press well beyond the conventional boundaries of scholarly disciplines, conversing with such wide-ranging theorists of eroticism as Barthes, Baudrillard, Klossowski, Foucault, and Harpham. In the end, they offer not only a fresh interpretation of Augustine’s famous work but also a multivocal literary-philosophical meditation on the seductive elusiveness of desire, bodies, language, and God.

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Investigating the global system of detention centers that imprison asylum seekers and conceal persistent human rights violations Remote detention centers confine tens of thousands of refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented immigrants around the world, operating in a legal gray area that hides terrible human rights abuses from the international community. Built to temporarily house eight hundred migrants in transit, the immigrant “reception center” on the Italian island of Lampedusa has held thousands of North African refugees under inhumane conditions for weeks on end. Australia’s use of Christmas Island as a detention center for asylum seekers has enabled successive governments to imprison migrants from Asia and Africa, including the Sudanese human rights activist Abdul Aziz Muhamat, held there for five years. In The Death of Asylum, Alison Mountz traces the global chain of remote sites used by states of the Global North to confine migrants fleeing violence and poverty, using cruel measures that, if unchecked, will lead to the death of asylum as an ethical ideal. Through unprecedented access to offshore detention centers and immigrant-processing facilities, Mountz illustrates how authorities in the United States, the European Union, and Australia have created a new and shadowy geopolitical formation allowing them to externalize their borders to distant islands where harsh treatment and deadly force deprive migrants of basic human rights.Mountz details how states use the geographic inaccessibility of places like Christmas Island, almost a thousand miles off the Australian mainland, to isolate asylum seekers far from the scrutiny of humanitarian NGOs, human rights groups, journalists, and their own citizens. By focusing on borderlands and spaces of transit between regions, The Death of Asylum shows how remote detention centers effectively curtail the basic human right to seek asylum, forcing refugees to take more dangerous risks to escape war, famine, and oppression.

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Honorable Mention, 2014 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award presented by the Society for the Study of Social Problems 2012 Best Book Award, Latino/a Sociology Section, presented by the American Sociological Association 2012 Finalist, C. Wright Mills Book Award presented by the Study of Social Problems A classic ethnography that reveals how urban police criminalize black and Latino boys Victor Rios grew up in the ghetto of Oakland, California in the 1980s and 90s. A former gang member and juvenile delinquent, Rios managed to escape the bleak outcome of many of his friends and earned a PhD at Berkeley and returned to his hometown to study how inner city young Latino and African American boys develop their sense of self in the midst of crime and intense policing. Punished examines the difficult lives of these young men, who now face punitive policies in their schools, communities, and a world where they are constantly policed and stigmatized. Rios followed a group of forty delinquent Black and Latino boys for three years. These boys found themselves in a vicious cycle, caught in a spiral of punishment and incarceration as they were harassed, profiled, watched, and disciplined at young ages, even before they had committed any crimes, eventually leading many of them to fulfill the destiny expected of them. But beyond a fatalistic account of these marginalized young men, Rios finds that the very system that criminalizes them and limits their opportunities, sparks resistance and a raised consciousness that motivates some to transform their lives and become productive citizens. Ultimately, he argues that by understanding the lives of the young men who are criminalized and pipelined through the criminal justice system, we can begin to develop empathic solutions which support these young men in their development and to eliminate the culture of punishment that has become an overbearing part of their everyday lives.

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This volume introduces a new way to study the experiences of runaway slaves by defining different "spaces of freedom" they inhabited. It also provides a groundbreaking continental view of fugitive slave migration, moving beyond the usual regional or national approaches to explore locations in Canada, the U.S. North and South, Mexico, and the Caribbean.Using newspapers, advertisements, and new demographic data, contributors show how events like the Revolutionary War and westward expansion shaped the slave experience. Contributors investigate sites of formal freedom, where slavery was abolished and refugees were legally free, to determine the extent to which fugitive slaves experienced freedom in places like Canada while still being subject to racism. In sites of semiformal freedom, as in the northern United States, fugitives' claims to freedom were precarious because state abolition laws conflicted with federal fugitive slave laws. Contributors show how local committees strategized to interfere with the work of slave catchers to protect refugees. Sites of informal freedom were created within the slaveholding South, where runaways who felt relocating to distant destinations was too risky formed maroon communities or attempted to blend in with free black populations. These individuals procured false documents or changed their names to avoid detection and pass as free.The essays discuss slaves' motivations for choosing these destinations, the social networks that supported their plans, what it was like to settle in their new societies, and how slave flight impacted broader debates about slavery. This volume redraws the map of escape and emancipation during this period, emphasizing the importance of place in defining the meaning and extent of freedom. Contributors: Kyle Ainsworth | Mekala Audain | Gordon S. Barker | Sylviane A. Diouf | Roy E. Finkenbine | Graham Russell Gao Hodges | Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie | Viola Franziska Müller | James David Nichols | Damian Alan Pargas | Matthew PinskerA volume in the series Southern Dissent, edited by Stanley Harrold and Randall M. Miller

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To seek sanctuary from persecution by entering a sacred space is an act of desperation, but also a symbolic endeavor: fugitives invoke divine presence to reach a precarious safe haven that imbues their lives with religious, social, or political significance. In medieval England, sanctuary was upheld under both canon and common law, and up to five hundred people sought sanctuary every year. What they found, however, was not so much a static refuge as a temporary respite from further action—confession and exile—or from further violence—jurisdictional conflict, harrying or starvation, a breaching of the sanctuary. While sanctuary has usually been analyzed as part of legal history, in Uncertain Refuge Elizabeth Allen explores the symbolic consequences of sanctuary seeking in English literary works—miracle collections, chronicles, romances, and drama. She ponders the miracle of a stag's escape from the hunt into a churchyard as well as the account of a fallen political favorite who gains a sort of charisma as he takes sanctuary three times in succession; the figure of Sir Gawain, seeking refuge in a stark land far from the court and Robin Hood, hiding in his local forest refuge among his Merry Men. Her consideration of medieval sanctuary extends to its resonances in a seventeenth-century play about the early Tudor usurper Perkin Warbeck and even into modern America, with the case of a breach of sanctuary in southwest Georgia in 1963, when sheriffs took over a voter registration meeting in a local church. Uncertain Refuge illuminates a fantasy of protection and its impermanence that animated late medieval literary culture, and one that remains poignantly alive, if no longer written into law, in today's troubled political world.

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Throughout the twentieth century, African Americans challenged segregation at amusement parks, swimming pools, and skating rinks not only in pursuit of pleasure but as part of a wider struggle for racial equality. Well before the Montgomery bus boycott, mothers led their children into segregated amusement parks, teenagers congregated at forbidden swimming pools, and church groups picnicked at white-only parks. But too often white mobs attacked those who dared to transgress racial norms. In Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters, Victoria W. Wolcott tells the story of this battle for access to leisure space in cities all over the United States. Contradicting the nostalgic image of urban leisure venues as democratic spaces, Wolcott reveals that racial segregation was crucial to their appeal. Parks, pools, and playgrounds offered city dwellers room to exercise, relax, and escape urban cares. These gathering spots also gave young people the opportunity to mingle, flirt, and dance. As cities grew more diverse, these social forms of fun prompted white insistence on racially exclusive recreation. Wolcott shows how black activists and ordinary people fought such infringements on their right to access public leisure. In the face of violence and intimidation, they swam at white-only beaches, boycotted discriminatory roller rinks, and picketed Jim Crow amusement parks. When African Americans demanded inclusive public recreational facilities, white consumers abandoned those places. Many parks closed or privatized within a decade of desegregation. Wolcott's book tracks the decline of the urban amusement park and the simultaneous rise of the suburban theme park, reframing these shifts within the civil rights context. Filled with detailed accounts and powerful insights, Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters brings to light overlooked aspects of conflicts over public accommodations. This eloquent history demonstrates the significance of leisure in American race relations.

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The unlikely refuge of Shanghai, the only city in the world that did not require a visa, was buffeted by the struggle between European imperialism, Japanese aggression, and Chinese nationalism. Ernest G. Heppner's compelling testimony is a brilliant account of this little-known haven. Although Heppner was a member of a privileged middle-class Jewish family, he suffered from the constant anti-Semitic undercurrent in his surroundings. The devastation of "Crystal Night" in November 1938, however, introduced a new level of Nazi horror and ended his comfortable world overnight. Heppner and his mother used the family's resources to escape to Shanghai. Heppner was taken aback by experiences on the ocean liner that transported the refugees to Shanghai: he was embarrassed and confounded when Egyptian Jews offered worn clothing to the Jewish passengers, he resented the edicts against Jewish passengers disembarking in any ports on the way, and he was unprepared for the poverty and cultural dislocation of the great city of Shanghai. Nevertheless, Heppner was self-reliant, energetic, and clever, and his story of finding niches for his skills that enabled him to survive in a precarious fashion is a tribute to human endurance. In 1945, after the liberation of China, Heppner found a responsible position with the American forces there. He and his wife, whom he had met and married in the ghetto, arrived in the United States in 1947 with only eleven dollars but boundless hope and energy. Heppner's account of the Shanghai ghetto is as vivid to him now as it was then. His admiration for his new country and his later success in business do not, however, obscure for him the shameful failure of the Allies to furnish a refuge for Jews before, during, and after the war.

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